‘Foods for a Healthy Heart’ Plant-Based Nutrition and Cooking Classes Launch Across the U.S. During American Heart Month

The stand-alone class is part of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s Food for Life plant-based nutrition and cooking class program.

“As a cardiac nurse, I am so passionate about combating the No. 1 cause of death in America for women and men, which is heart disease,” says Jennifer Nemeth, a San Diego-area Food for Life instructor who will be teaching the class on Feb. 14. “This class will equip participants with the knowledge and practical skills to take action and strengthen their heart health through simple diet and lifestyle changes. The goal is to guide participants toward adopting healthier, low-fat plant-based diets that reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.”

In the United States, heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the highest death rates in Blacks, Asians, and Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders.

“Offering the Foods for a Healthy Heart class in Spanish also allows us to expand our reach to Hispanics, for whom heart disease is also the leading cause of death,” says Katya Galbis, LD, DipACLM, who teaches classes in both English and Spanish in the Orlando, Fla., area, and in Spanish-speaking countries.

Decades of research show the benefits of a plant-based diet for heart health, including a recent review published in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology. The research found that plant-based diets were associated with a 15% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and an 8% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. A vegan diet was also associated with improvements in cardiovascular disease risk factors, including blood pressure, cholesterol, and body mass index.

More than 25 years ago, a landmark study by Dean Ornish, MD, tested the effects of a plant-based diet on participants with moderate to severe heart disease. There were no surgeries or stents—just simple diet and lifestyle changes. Within weeks, 90% of chest pain diminished. After just one month, blood flow to the heart improved. After a year, even severely blocked arteries had reopened. At the Cleveland Clinic, Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., MD, tested the same approach on patients with severe heart disease and published similar results, finding that narrowing of the arteries was reduced, resulting in improved blood flow to the heart.

Joel Erickson, who became a Food for Life instructor in 2021, knows firsthand the heart-health benefits of a plant-based diet, which he began following after a “widowmaker” heart attack—which is caused by a 100% blockage in the left anterior descending artery—he suffered in 2016.

The heart attack came as a shock to Joel. Though several pounds overweight, he ran and exercised regularly, had what he considered a healthy diet, maintained fair to good cholesterol and blood pressure levels, and had no history of heart disease in his family.

Joel and his wife, Jill, who became a Food for Life instructor in 2019, had already been following what was basically a Mediterranean diet, but he knew from the research presented in Forks Over Knives that there was something that he could do to reverse his heart disease and reduce the likelihood of suffering another attack.

“After the heart attack, I said that I wanted to go 100% plant-based, and Jill was all in,” Joel says, who along with Jill teaches Food for Life classes in the St. Paul, Minnesota, area.

Designed by physicians, nurses, and dietitians, Food for Life classes promote healthful plant-based eating based on the latest scientific research. Each class includes information about how certain foods and nutrients work to promote or discourage disease, cooking demonstrations of delicious and healthful plant-based recipes, and practical cooking skills and tips for incorporating healthful eating habits into daily life.